Palm is about to enter the the realms of the mobile-internet-touch-screen-smart oober phone with the new Palm Pre.

Well, almost about to.

It was supposed to be launched in “early 2009” but the latest rumored launch date is the 7^th June. Lets hope the latest rumor doesn't disappoint.

The Pre is supposed to have, well, everything. So far none of the smart phones do all the things I want my take-over-the-universe phone to do. Even the iphone falls short of my ultimate phone with its inability to have a blue tooth keyboard attachment or decent document editing on the go.

I think that the Pre looks stunning. It is like a cute rounded pebble. However, this has not gone down so well with the macho tech crowd. It is thicker than the iphone, but includes a fold out qwerty keyboard. I've never been sure about how useful keyboards like that actually are and some of the forums are suggesting that this will be the achiles heel of the Pre. The screen looks a reasonable size. Reasonable, not huge. But then my hands are quite small anyway. I'm not sure you would really manage to watch a film on it. But then is it really good for your eyesight to watch a film on the iphone? Just because you can do something, doesn't mean it's always a good idea ...

When it comes to useful applications the iphone has an impressive head start. The app store has an extensive community of commercial and individual programmers. However, it has been suggested that the Pre may be easier for third parties to write programs for. Only time will tell.

The biggest advantage of the Pre over the iPhone is that the pre is able to multitask. The Pre is truly a female smart phone!

So why has taken so long for the Pre to appear? Programming issues? Hardware issues? Copyright problems? Money? The company has certainly based its reputation on this one product and we shall soon see if it will sink or swim.

I need to buy a smart phone. Will the Pre be the phone for me? Does it come in pink?